The Lords of Battle: Image and Reality of the Comitatus in Dark-Age Britain

In examining the image of the "comitatus", or war-band, as it is portrayed in literary and historical sources from Britain's early-medieval period, this work attempts to determine the extent to which this image reflects an historical reality. Through an extensive use of a variety of source material - literary, historical and archaeological - the book investigates both the structure of the war-band and the practices and institutions which supported it. Having begun with a review of the historical background of Dark-Age Britain, the author explores the practical characteristics of the "comitatus", such as its military organization, its internal social structure and its place within society as a whole, and economic institutions which produced and supported the war-band. This discussion incorporates the role of the court poets, hostage-taking, fosterage, food-renders, tribute and booty.